I worked for a public garden for 5 and a half years. Two years into the job, I had a lot of photos of the garden’s flora and fauna, so I thought I should start an Instagram account to share them and free up space on my phone. I noticed that the company I worked for had never claimed the Instagram handle for the gardens, even though they had been in business for 25 years, so I took it. I made it clear in the description that it is a private account.
I haven’t worked for the company for over a year and a half now, and I was recently contacted by the horticulture manager. She is trying to convince upper management that the gardens should have social media accounts and asked me to hand over my account. I told her it’s a private account and refused. (There’s a bit of backstory here: I quit to manage a farm that paid better after asking for a raise several times at the public garden. I’m a single mom and wasn’t making much despite taking on many responsibilities. When the farm shut down to turn into a sports complex, I went back to the gardens looking for my old job, but the horticulture director called me in for what felt more like a reprimand than an interview. I didn’t get the job, and I was told that director was warning others not to hire me because I am ‘difficult to work with.’ It’s scary to be out of work and relying on my savings, so there are some bitter feelings about this.)
I recently received an email from the company’s new marketing director, which said:
"We have a list of all accounts secured over the past few years, and it looks like the two A* Gardens handles on Instagram and TikTok were secured by you during your time with (company name). We are trying to log back into those accounts to post, as the A* Gardens is a beloved project for the A* family, and we’d like to resume posting on the page(s).
We have screenshots from when the account was first created versus now, and we hope you can change the link in bio back to the TP website. You can either change the email to the horticulture manager’s so she can reset the account or just share the login with her.
Since this is a company name, and it was created while you were employed, the company owns it as property. It seems inappropriate for a personal profile given the circumstances."
I did create the first Instagram account while I was an employee, but I made it clear that it was a private account. The other accounts I created later. They can’t log back into the accounts since they never had the login information. I never linked it to their business website. I didn’t create it on behalf of the gardens; I made it for myself.
They have already tried to shut down the accounts through Instagram.
My questions are: Can they claim it is their property even if I didn’t create it or post anything while on the clock? What rights do I have?
Honestly, I would have gladly handed over the accounts if I was still employed there, but seeing as no manager stood up for me, I don’t see how it’s my problem that they weren’t smart enough to claim the handles.